The purpose of this blog is to explore different places that spirituality intersects my daily life; from what it truly means to LOVE your neighbor all the way to how the newest movie,song,or tv show that I have experienced confronts spirituality rather intended or not.

About Me

I LOVE God, I have been married for 5 years to a wonderful woman, I am a recent college graduate of Lakeland college with a degree in Religious Studies,I have currently foregone going to Seminary, but feel called to work with teens and young adults and do so at my local church, Vineyard CC, in Grafton, WI.

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Saturday, May 14, 2011

That was an unlikely place to find an image of God's love . . . but it was

As the title suggests we can find images of God's love in the strangest of places. This should really not be that much of a surprise to us Christians, after all our whole faith system stems from the central belief that God took human form and allowed others to crucify that human form (Jesus of Nazareth, just so there is no confusion) and through that death, death itself was conquered.
This may seem, to some, like a morbid, vengeful way to demonstrate love, but to me this is a beautiful act and one that offers us the opportunity to live our lives free of stigma and shame. If we look at it through the lens of Jesus as God incarnate, God is not sacrificing God's son, but God's self. God is making the decision for God's self, not for someone else. It is this image that we can find in the most amazing places. For instance, in an episode of "Criminal Minds."
In the first season of "Criminal Minds" there is an episode called "Ride the Lightning." In this episode the BAU is presented with the task of interviewing a husband and wife cereal killer team to determine if there are anymore bodies berried undiscovered, after a 13th body is found a couple of days before their execution. The wife was only convicted of one murder, their son. As the episode plays out you discover that the woman, who is initially seen as a heartless killer, is in actuality a loving mother who offered herself up, so her child can live blameless and free from his father's crimes. By admitting to her son's murder and dying in the electric chair her son is able to be adopted by a different family and is reborn as a new person through her sacrifice. To add to the otherwise blatant imagery I am presenting to you, the members of the BAU, the eternal element of good in the show, discover the truth, that she is blameless and should not be put to death, must choose between her life and the life of her child. A decision that is nearly impossible to make ends with her execution.
This mother's sacrifice of herself calls us to ask what we would do for our children. Could we go to our death innocent of any crime, just so others may live free from any corruption that would be caste upon them, as a result of others actions, and at no fault of their own?
Jesus life, ministry, death, and resurrection offer us that same clean slate. Allow me to reiterate, we are offered a gift. We are offered love, forgiveness, and grace unconditionally and all we have to do is accept it. When we accept it, we get to use it, like when we get an iPod for a present. These are active things not inactive and should not be put on a shelf. So,we not only have to choose to open it, but then we must choose to use it. The Easter story is not just a soul thing, it is a life thing. This is not only seen in how easily it can be translated through fiction into a "real" life situation, but it is also seen in the knowledge that Jesus calls us to continue his ministry by using the love, forgiveness, and grace offered by God. This is a gift offered to ALL regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, or nationality. God works in the strangest of ways and with all walks of life!
Jesus demonstrated how hard it is to use this gift, but we are not expected to walk it perfectly like he did. We are allowed to mess up and when we do God is waiting for us with open arms. All we have to do is pull the forgiveness off of the shelf and use it. I thank God every day for these gifts because free will is a bitch, full of pitfalls and questionable choices. I for one, know that I have made a multitude of wrong choices, but also know that God loves me unconditionally and I know this through Jesus life, ministry, death, and resurrection.